You wake up with the sun shining in your face. Groggy, you sit up, feeling wet grass beneath your hands. What happened last night? Your vision is blurry. Looking down, you see that the white robe you're wearing is stained. It smells like blood.Looking around, you recognize your surroundings. It's a small clearing in the massive forest near your home. The site you picked to perform some kind of ritual, but you can't remember what ritual exactly. Everything is a blur.You examine the area. The 9' circle of salt surrounding you has been smeared and broken in several places. Your ritual tools are scattered all over the place, save for the ritual dagger that you woke up holding. As you move to stand, your torso stings.

Pulling up the front of your robe, you see a symbol engraved into your chest. You immediately recognize it as a symbol of protection against demons by some magicians.Is that what happened last night? Did you try to summon something?You begin picking up your ritual tools. Incense, pendants, a wand, some crystals, and your books. You glance over them, trying to figure out exactly what you were trying to do.The Lesser Key of Solomon the King -- an arcane instruction manual on summoning demons. Maybe you were doing something from that. You also find your journal, a small leatherbound journal which has been filled with spells and notes, leaving very little room for the outcomes of your experiments. And then, your favorite work of occult literature, which you usually bring with you for sentimental reasons. It's called...

>Liber Null. I practice chaos magick, primarily.>Initiation Into Hermetics. I prefer the more well tested systems.>The Essential Kabbalah. The ancient techniques of Hebrew mysticism draw me in.>The Book of Lies. Crowley is my favorite author.>The Practice of Enochian Evocation. The angels are on my side.>I Ching. The Chinese systems always intrigued me.>Wiccan Spells. My first and favorite book, which drew me into the religion of Wicca.

Ah, yes. Liber Null, my preferred system being chaos magick. It is a heavily personal "everything that works, nothing that doesn't" system.You immediately open your journal and look to your entries to try and understand what you were trying to do.Well, that isn't satisfactory. All it says is "Going to ritual place with Jacob tonight to perform the ritual we discussed." You have no memory of discussing any ritual with Jacob.Jacob's your friend who has recently become interested in the arcane arts. You told him that you would mentor him, though you hadn't performed any rituals with him prior to, apparently, last night.What the hell happened last night? Whatever happened, you felt the need to protect yourself by carving a protective symbol into your chest. Maybe Jacob knows what's going on. Or maybe you should just try to forget about this entire experience.By the position of the Sun, you think you're nearly late for work already. You work at a metaphysical goods shop. Maybe Jacob's already shown up for work. Either way, you're already on thin ice with your boss. A few more slip ups and you could get fired, and then how could you afford your ritual supplies?

>Call Jacob until he answers his phone.>I'm sure Jacob will tell me later. Go to work.>Continue to search the area for clues.

You decide that you'd better head to work. First, though, you've got to go home and change into something less... bloody.As you walk through the woods, you take your phone out of your supply bag. "Where are you? Do you know what happened last night?" You type out while walking. You don't get a response.It takes you about half an hour to walk from your spot in the woods to your apartment. You rent the basement of an old house. Since it's not a choice spot, it's the cheapest rent you could find.Once you're done changing, you walk to the shop. It's only a few blocks away. When you get inside, you find that you're 10 minutes late. To your dismay, Jacob isn't here, though it's entirely possible he just wasn't on the schedule today."About time you got here," Marissa says, turning down her radio. She was listening to the local news. Marissa is your boss. She's only two years older than you, and fairly attractive, but she oozes a sense of superiority. "Come on, we just got a shipment of new books in. You've got to shelve them in alphabetical order. Then I need the place sweeped, and clean out Ozzy's box."Ozzy is the shop's cat. Marissa claims that it's her familiar, gifted to her by a spirit. In reality, it was a homeless cat living outside of the shop that she hadn't noticed until after the first time she performed a ritual. Despite her higher ranking in the shop and her seniority over you, Marissa frankly didn't know a damn thing about magick."Uh, alright. I'll get right on that."

>Proceed to do your job.>Ask about Jacob.>"What are you doing while I'm taking care of the shop?">By the way, check this out. [Show carved image.]

You go into the storage room and turn on the light.Six. Six boxes full of books. You think that Marissa ordered the exact number of books needed to fill every single space on every bookshelf in the shop. This isn't going to be fun.As you start heaving the boxes out of the storage room, you ask "Marissa, was Jacob supposed to come in?""Your little boyfriend was on the schedule. No call, no show. He's lucky that he covered for me last week, or I'd have him fired."You feel a little worried. Whatever happened last night wasn't good. Trying to push the thoughts out of your head, you begin shelving the books.Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard. Mastering Witchcraft. A Teen Girl's Guide to Love Spells, now there's one you know Marissa's responsible for. You haven't seen anything like that on these shelves in a long time.

>"A Teen Girl's Guide to Love Spells? Really, Marissa?">"Have you heard from him since last night?">Continue to work in silence.>Flip through a few books at random.

"A Teen Girl's Guide to Love Spells? Really, Marissa?" You say, flipping it open for a look. Typical tacky fake magick crap. Chapter three, how to get boys to notice you and being invisible to dweebs."It's been selling really well online. The under 18 crowd is a huge group, maybe we can tap into their market." Now she's filing her nails next to the cash register.You shrug; it's not like you haven't read a number of embarassing, horrible magick books. You flip through a couple of different books. Mostly stuff you know already. Then, as you touch one book, the symbol you carved onto your chest starts stinging."Damn!" You say underneath your breath. You feel the wound has opened up, and your work shirt has gotten some blood on it.

>Go to the bathroom to use the first aid box.>Toughen up and complete the job.>Start reading the book.

Ignoring the pain in your chest, you bring the book up. The Book of Asmoday, big lettering pressed into a leather cover. That's strange, you've never heard of this before. Flipping it open, you see that it has no listed author or publication, and it's clearly an old book.You start to try and read it, but it's written in another language. Luckily, a reference book on the shelf shows that the lettering looks familiar to Enochian.That's strange. Asmoday is a demon from the Goetia. Why would a book on him be written in Enochian?"Hey, Marissa. This book doesn't have a listed author. What should I do with it?""Let me see it," she says. You walk over and hand it to her. Luckily, you haven't bled enough for her to notice it. "I don't remember ordering it. I guess we could use it as window decoration, it might draw some attention."

>"I could take it home and figure out how much it's worth.">"I'll buy it. Fifty bucks.">"Maybe we should send it back to the company.">Display it on the shelf near the window.

"I could take it home and figure out how much it's worth," You say."Well, I don't see any harm in it," Marissa says. Obviously she doesn't care. She's more into whatever the radio is saying.You place the book behind the counter and hurriedly finish organizing the shelves. By the time you're done, it seems like you've stopped bleeding, and you haven't dirtied up your shirt enough for people to notice.Then you start sweeping. "So, anything interesting on the news?" You ask. It's not like you really care, but there are rarely customers, so you try to have some kind of conversation going. It's easier when Jacob's around."Not much. They found some dead animals in the center of town. Lots of talk about how it might've been a spooky Satanist or whatever.""Probably just some kids playing a prank with roadkill." After cleaning up the cat's litterbox, you realize that you've been working for three hours already and no one's shown up.

>"Anything else you want me to do?">"It's dead here. Want to close shop?">"Give Jacob a call, figure out if he's coming in.">Ask for a lunch break to start reading.

"Marissa, can I get a lunch break?""Whatever. It's not like anyone's come in so far. Be back in an hour.""Thanks. Why don't you give Jacob a call when I'm gone? He could show up.""Maybe. Now scoot, before I change my mind."You grab the book and head home. Your chest stings while you hold it. After some digging through old books, you find a book on the Enochian language and get to work. In an hour, you're able to translate the following:

"My name is unimportant. The true author of this text writes through me; his name is Asmoday, the king who rules seventy-two legions in Hell. This tome details the commanded strategies through which one can show devotion to his majesty Asmoday. Praise Him, for through Him there is true power.It is no mistake that this book has come to you. Perhaps Asmoday has taken interest in you, or perhaps you have done something to upset Him. In translating this from the holy tongue of the angels, you have already taken the first step down his path.Continue at your own risk, for if you are not prepared to perform the rituals written here properly, He will surely destroy you.The first section of this tome will detail rituals for the invocation or evocation of Asmoday or his followers in the ancient tradition. The Lemegeton, though a fine book, lacks vital information regarding his majesty Asmoday and the rituals he favors.The second section details prayers and supplementary rituals.Of major interest is the third and final section, which details the translation of holy Enochian to the dialect preferred by Him and His legions. While technically a dialect of Enochian, it is far enough removed to be considered a language of its own.

Praise Asmoday, eternal praise; and may His enemies tremble before Him and His legions."

>Skip work and continue translating.>Bring it back to work and never open it again.>Leave it at your place and return to work.

You place a bookmark in the strange book and check your shirt. Some blood has seeped through the cloth. Quickly, you switch shirts and return to work."Took you long enough," Marissa says. "We had a customer. It was awful.""What'd they buy?""Guess.""How am I supposed to guess?""A Teen Girl's Guide to Love Spells."You can't help but laugh. "I guess you were right.""That's why I'm the boss."

"Did you talk to Jacob?" You ask."Tried him, but I didn't get an answer. Since nothing's probably going to happen here and you already cleaned the store, why don't you go check if he's home?""I didn't know you cared so much about him." Marissa and Jacob have a brief history together. The two of them used to date in high school, but that was years ago. Since then, they've just been friends, and not particularly close ones."Well, he's supposed to be here taking care of customers. Imagine if two walked in. Or, gods forbid, three.""Alright, fine. I'll go to his place."

You hope that he's home. Whatever happened last night apparently involved him, and he's far less experienced than you.

>Go to Jacob's house.>Screw that. Go home and translate.>Go back to the ritual site before it's dark outside.

You head over to Jacob's house. He only lives about a mile from the shop as well. Unlike you, Jacob lives in his own house. At one point it belonged to his parents, but after his parents passed away, it became his.After knocking on the door and receiving no answer, you ring the doorbell. Nothing. After a few more minutes you begin knocking and ringing incessantly. No response at all. Now you're starting to get worried.As you walk away from the house, you look back to see if the door had been answered. Jacob is standing on the roof."Jacob?" You call up to him. "Are you doing okay?"He says nothing, but stares down at you."Buddy?"He opens his mouth, and you hear a high pitched noise, like a TV with no signal. He continues to further open his mouth. It moves past what a human being can do with their mouth. What the hell is going on?The sound increases in intensity as you fall to your knees and pass out.